Well, I've lurked in the shadows for a while and read many many good posts from all contributors and almost feel like a part of the community...except that no one knows I exist! Story of my life.
Based on many posts and reviews, I bought my first rep in about 2 years. Last one was a Submariner that would've been better had I known about RWG. I got a IWC 3717 from Andrew and it is fantastic. Thanks to Pugwash and his post of swapping the datewheel, I foolishly went ahead and performed my first ever mod on my second rep ever. What happened?
Well, it worked (did I thank Pugwash yet? ajoesmith's post also really really helped)...kinda. True, no one can tell that I messed anything up but I can tell I messed a little bit up. I scratched the minute hand just slightly, the valjoux day wheel is a little off center (but some gens are like that as well), and what annoys me the most is that I left a small piece of dust on the inside of the crystal!!! (Easily fixed I know, but I'm getting lazy). I took the watch apart around 10 times since the chrono second hand kept resetting at a different location which drove me absolutely mad.
To end this post: Thanks all for all the insightful posts and I will continue to visit and hopefully join in further discussions.
A pic of my new friend is attached